Hopes Fade Quickly In Third Period

October 15, 2006|By Steve Gorten Staff Writer

Tampa — Lightning winger Dimitry Afanasenkov cruised with the puck from one end of the ice to the other and ripped a shot from the right circle. It struck goalie Ed Belfour, trickled behind him, then bounced harmlessly off the left post.

The lucky carom in the second period kept the Panthers within a goal, but in a span of 22 seconds in the third, their hopes of beating the Lightning for a second consecutive night ended.

Ruslan Fedotenko scored at 9:02 and Afanasenkov followed soon after as Tampa Bay beat Florida 4-1 at the St. Pete Times Forum for just its third win in the teams' last 10 meetings.

"The first period was pretty good and then after that, too many penalties, and they outworked us," Panthers coach Jacques Martin said. "They deserved to win."

Said captain Olli Jokinen: "A couple of quick goals in the third and that was it. ... It shouldn't happen."

With 3:48 left, fists flew. Jokinen, who rarely fights, exchanged punches with the Lightning's Brad Richards while Todd Bertuzzi wrestled Ryan Craig to the ice and pinned him. They were soon separated, sticks and gloves were picked up, and all four left with five-minute fighting majors.

"He speared me. He was the guy who dropped the gloves, so I defended myself," Jokinen said.

By that time, both teams knew their fate. The Panthers, despite a strong performance by Belfour, failed again on the road, generating few scoring chances against Lightning goalie Marc Denis. After going 12-23-6 on the road last season, they've lost all three away games so far, scoring a total of two goals -- both by Stephen Weiss.

"We just weren't good enough -- that's the bottom line," Weiss said. "It's definitely something we have to fix and soon ... we have to find ways to win on the road. I don't know what it is, but we have to find the solution sooner than later or we'll be in trouble."

The Lightning led 2-1 entering the third period on Martin St. Louis' goal with a two-man advantage at 8:30 of the second. St. Louis popped in a rebound with Belfour sitting on the ice as Gary Roberts and Martin Gelinas sat in the penalty box -- both sent off within 27 seconds.

The Lightning came close on several other chances, but Belfour made 17 of his 32 saves in the second period. Belfour said he felt better as the game wore on and that his timing was better than Oct. 7 at Atlanta.

For the second consecutive night, center Vinny Lecavalier blasted a shot from the slot for the game's first goal, this time at 4:20 of the first period over the left shoulder of a stunned Belfour. It broke a streak of 22 consecutive power plays without a goal for Tampa Bay.

Weiss tied it at 16:41 for Florida with his third goal in four games. Mike Van Ryn got the puck at the point off the faceoff, slid right and fired it toward the net, where Weiss, standing to Denis' right, directed the pass in with his stick.